Spain

Spain's system of autonomous communities grants regions variable self-governance — the Basque Country and Navarre collect their own taxes, while most other regions depend on central government transfers. Catalonia's 2017 independence referendum exposed the system's fundamental tension: regional identity is strong enough to demand self-determination but constitutional law provides no mechanism for secession. The Spanish Constitution of 1978, written during the transition from Franco's dictatorship, deliberately ambiguous about regional powers to secure consensus from both centralists and regionalists — a constructive ambiguity that worked for decades but fractures under pressure. Spain's economy shifted from agriculture to services, with tourism accounting for roughly 12% of GDP, creating a seasonal metabolism vulnerable to external shocks (COVID-19 reduced tourist arrivals by 77% in 2020). The monarchy serves a stabilising function demonstrated during the 1981 coup attempt, when King Juan Carlos's intervention preserved democracy — a constitutional failsafe that only works if the individual occupying the role chooses to use it.